Who are the Israeli settlers and why are they so controversial?

(CNN) — The White House is targeting Israeli settlers, a controversial movement that has grown in power over the years and is seen by the outside world as a major obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

On Thursday, the State Department announced the first round of sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of perpetrating violence in the West Bank. The sanctions freeze their financial assets and prevent them from entering the United States.

The sanctions are the most significant steps taken by Biden to criticize Israel since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, when the Palestinian extremist group launched an attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and wounded more than 250. the hostages

Subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza have so far killed more than 27,000 Palestinians in the territory.

Much less in the public eye, during that period, at least 370 Palestinians have died in the occupied West Bank, including 94 children. Almost all were killed by Israeli soldiers, but settler violence in the West Bank has also increased since the start of the war, with settlers burning cars, destroying infrastructure and attacking and killing Palestinians.

Since the start of the war, the White House has reaffirmed its long-standing stance of support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.

Only four immigrants were targeted by the US move. But 700,000 of them live in the West Bank, and according to the international community, every one of them is illegal to be present. The Palestinians want the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza for a future state, a position supported by the rest of the world.

Here’s everything to know about Jewish immigrants and why they’re so controversial.

What are West Bank Settlements?

During the 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. After some time, he began to establish Israelite communities in those regions.

It currently maintains control over East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank, and maintains a land and sea blockade of Gaza. The international community considers these territories to be occupied by Israel.

3.3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and it is where most of the Jewish settlements are located. Israel has continued to expand settlements for decades despite signing a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s, the so-called Oslo Accords, which provided for the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as part of the negotiations. A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

There are 146 settlements spread across the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), many of which encroach on Palestinian villages and, in some cases, privately owned Palestinian land. Some are built very close to Palestinian population centers and one, in Hebron, is located in the heart of a Palestinian city. There are 14 Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that the international community considers illegal.

The prevailing view among Palestinians and Israel’s allies in the West is that the settlements are a major obstacle to peace, making a full, contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank impossible.

Who are the immigrants?

Settlers are Israeli Jews who live in the occupied territories of Israel, primarily in communities built by the Israeli government. Many of them are ideologically motivated and believe they have a divine right to live there, as prescribed in the Bible, although other settlers choose to live in the West Bank because it offers a lower cost of living and the Israeli government subsidizes the cost of living. A place to stay. There are over 450,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Settlers in the West Bank are governed by Israeli civilian rule and have their own road and transport network, while Palestinian residents are governed by Israeli military rule, are forced to pass through Israeli military checkpoints, and are practically barred from entering Jewish settlements. The dual system, one for Jews and one for Palestinians, has been criticized by Israeli and international humanitarian groups as an apartheid system, which Israel vehemently denies.

Many settlers are armed and some have engaged in deadly attacks against Palestinian civilians. Since the war between Israel and Hamas began, at least eight Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks.

Settler influence in Israeli politics has grown over the years. The current Israeli coalition government consists of two settler-backed parties, whose leaders live in the West Bank and have pushed for the expansion of Jewish communities in the occupied territory.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, calls for the resettlement of Jews in Gaza have also gained strength, supported by some Israeli ministers, but Israel has maintained its official position that it has no plans to reoccupy or settle in Gaza. territory

What part of the West Bank does Israel control?

After Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, an interim Palestinian Authority, also known as the Palestinian Authority (PA), was established in the West Bank and Gaza, based in the city of Ramallah. That treaty divided the West Bank into three zones: A, B and C. The PA formally retains full administrative and security control of Zone A, which represents 18% of the territory. In Zone B, which comprises 22%, the PA has administrative control, while Israel has security control. And in Area C, which represents 60% of the West Bank, Israel retains administrative and security control.

What are “outpost” settlements?

Although all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law and by much of the international community, Israel separates the settlements it does not have from the authorized ones. Most settlements are built by government mandate, but some unauthorized settlements, known as outposts, are established by ideologically driven Israeli citizens in the hope that they will one day be authorized by the government.

Israel represses them from time to time, but often retroactively legalizes them when they become a community.

According to the Israeli human rights group Peace Now, there are 144 outpost settlements in the West Bank.

According to the Israel Policy Forum, more than 20,000 Israelis live there.

What is the legal status of colonies?

Colonies are illegal under international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with the civilian population in time of war, establishes in its Article 49 that “an occupying Power may not deport or transfer part of its own civilian population to the territory occupied by it.”

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which was not vetoed by the United States and was approved in December 2016, reaffirms this position. It states that the settlements have “no legal validity” and are “clear violations under international law”. This resolution refers to previous Security Council resolutions 242, 338, 446, 452, 465, 476, 478, 1397, 1515 and 1850. 465, 476 and 478 of these established that the settlements in 9180 had “no legal recognition”.

Israel, along with some legal analysts, denies the settlements are illegal.

In 2012, the Israeli government under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu published the Levy Commission report, which summarized this legal position. The report rejected the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the West Bank, arguing that the West Bank had never been a legitimate part of any Arab state.

“Consequently, the Conventions relating to the Administration of Occupied Territory and Occupied Populations (sic) do not apply to Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” the report said.
This is not a position accepted by any country or international forum.